S9^ 



WITENAGEMOTE PAPER NO. 6 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST 




GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST 



DETROIT, 1805-1815 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE WITENAGEMOTE 
ON FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER THE SECOND, 1891 




HFC 23 1891 /; > 



NEW- YORK 

PRINTED AT THE DE VINNE PRESS 

1891 






Copyright, 1891, by Charles Moore. 



The materials for this paper were obtained mainly 
from a collection of manuscripts in the Department of 
State at Washington. So far as the writer can find out, 
none of the historians of Michigan have seen the letters 
from Governor Hull, Judge Woodward, and Stanley 
Griswold which the collection contains. 




GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 




ILLIAM HULL, selected by President Jef- 
ferson to be the first governor of the 
new Territory Michigan, reached the east- 
ern borders of his dominions on the first 
day of July, 1805. As the little schooner 
that carried him and his fortunes made 
its way up the island-strewn river toward the century- 
old town of Detroit, the Governor's expectant gaze was 
greeted by the sight of a single row of low white farm- 
houses, with sharply pitched roofs pierced by small gable- 
windows. About the houses were great pear-trees raised 
from seeds brought from France by Cadillac's followers, and 
orchards of Lombardy apples, whose fame was to spread 
throughout the country. High fences of round cedar posts 
guarded the farms from the cattle, and especially from the 
droves of squealing French ponies that dashed up and down 
the narrow road leading along the river-bank ; the picket- 
fences also served as a sort of fortification in case of Indian 

lA 5 



6 GOVERNOR, JUDGE. AND PRIEST. 

attacks, and often proved a defense not to be despised. So 
near together were the houses that neighbors could call 
from porch to porch ; but the farms, although not more than 
five acres wide, stretched far back into the boundless forest. 
The neatness of the whitewashed fences and dwellings must 
have accorded well with the New England ideas of Governor 
Hull ; but his Puritan soul doubtless revolted from the moss- 
grown crucifixes on barn and gate-post and the shrines of the 
Virgin by the roadside. The points of land that here and 
there jutted out into the river were adorned as well as made 
useful by picturesque windmills, whose great sails swung 
lazily around in the summer wind. 

The French farmers living along both banks were, as Gov- 
ernor Hull soon found out, at one with their surroundings. 
The broad river which flowed past their doors not only fur- 
nished a plenteous harvest for their nets and a convenient 
means of communication with town and church, but it was 
also to them the world's highway. Its opalescent waters, 
coming from the rich fur-regions of the north, flowed round 
the high mountain of Montreal, where their market was, and 
under the cliffs of Quebec, whence the ships sailed to France. 

What the Governor expected to see was a compact town, 
well fortified against incursions of Indians, and surrounded 
by pleasant fields. He looked to see a joyful people come 
forth from happy homes to welcome the representative of 
free government. Instead of this cheerful greeting, what his 
wondering eyes did see was a mass of blackened embers 
where once a town had been, and a broad common covered 
with tents and booths. From these improvised dwellings 
came a crowd of thin-faced, bronze-complexioned, barefooted 
men, clad in colored shirts and trousers held at the waist by 
a leather belt. With them came a troop of plump and hand- 
some black-eyed French girls, their short gowns, or habits, 
falling over long, gaily-figured petticoats, and their faces 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 7 

protected from the July sun by broad-brimmed straw hats 
of home manufacture. From the days of Cadillac till within 
the memory of living men there was no change in the style 
of clothing worn by the French people of Detroit, and a 
garment was fashionable until it was worn out. 

On disembarking with Stanley Griswold, the Territorial 
Secretary, Governor Hull was met by Judge Woodward, who 
had arrived from Washington on the previous day, and by 
Judge Bates, who had been acting as Government Land Com- 
missioner and so was somewhat acquainted with the people. 
A temporary lodging was found for the new officials, but so 
crowded were the buildings that it was more than a week 
before the Governor found quarters for the winter in the 
small house of a farmer a mile above the ruins. 

The origin of the fire which completely destroyed Detroit 
remains a mystery. Governor Hull wrote to Secretary 
Madison that common report said the lumber-dealers had 
burned the town in order to force up the price of their 
stocks, and color \yas given to this idea by the unusual 
fact that contracts had been made at the mills for all the 
lumber that could be sawed during the season. In truth, 
the wonder is that Cadillac's town had not burned years 
before. Its streets were lanes, its wooden houses were 
crowded together so that they could be surrounded by 
palisades ; and once the fire started, the buildings burned 
so quickly that the people were able to save a part of their 
property only by rushing with it into the convenient river 
and there sinking it.^ 

During the twelve days that elapsed between the burn- 
ing of Detroit and the arrival of the Governor, the people 
had mapped out a new town on the pattern of the old one, 
save only that they had included the common, which they 
claimed on the ground that the land had been used as a free 
1 State Department MSS. 



8 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

pasture from the earliest times. With some difficulty the 
Governor and his associates persuaded the people to give 
up their plan and accept one to be prepared by the authori- 
ties. The fact was that in the fire which had completely 
wiped out the old Detroit, Judge Woodward saw his oppor- 
tunity to duplicate in the West the plan of a city with 
which his good friend Charles L'Enfant had captivated 
George Washington. L'Enfant's plan for the national capi- 
tal was adapted from Versailles, and Woodward's was a 
further variation on the French theme. At the time when 
President Jefferson took pity on his poverty by giving him 
a judicial appointment, Augustus B. Woodward was liter- 
ally the first lawyer in Washington, whither he had re- 
moved from his home in Alexandria when the capital city 
was first platted. Having watched the laying out of the 
nation's capital, he was now ready to lay out the capital 
of Michigan Territory. Making Campus Martius a center, 
Judge Woodward laid off the broad avenues which con- 
verge at that point and at the Grand Circus Parks. Fortu- 
nately for the acceptance of his plat. Judge Woodward 
retained the street leading along the river, which was then 
the only thoroughfare of importance, his Roman campus 
and circus being left for future generations to reclaim from 
the swamp. The lower part of the town was laid out in a 
regular manner, and the fact that the government owned 
Fort Shelby and its adjacent gardens (where the new Fed- 
eral Building now stands) made the plans seem mere things 
of paper, in so far as their vagaries were concerned. The 
French, too, were not disposed to object to a design pat- 
terned after Versailles ; and when Judge Woodward gave his 
own name to the thoroughfare which, starting at the river, 
ran straight out across the morasses to the woods, the 
people accepted for what it was worth his disingenuous 
explanation that the avenue was so called because it ran 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 9 

woodward. However, the decision which the Judge exhib- 
ited in the matter of the new plans showed his colleagues 
that they had to deal with a man who meant to have his 
own way, and whose head was full of schemes. 

The allotment of lands in the new city was a subject of 
great contention. Every one wanted a lot fronting on the 
river ; but from the house of John Dodemead to the line of 
the Askin property there was only 800 feet of building- 
ground, and this could not well be divided among 200 
or more claimants. Judge Woodward, however, followed 
his plans to Washington; and, as he claimed, by the ex- 
penditure of $300 on wine for congressmen, secured the 
passage of an act by the provisions of which 500 square 
feet of land was assigned, first, to each of the 20 heads of 
families who were occupying their own homes when the 
town was burned ; secondly, to the 16 persons who owned 
houses but were not heads of families, or who were not 
residents ; thirdly, to the 23 heads of families who were 
not proprietors ; fourthly, to 62 persons above the age of 
1 7 years who were residents but neither heads of families 
nor proprietors. Six British subjects, two free negroes, and 
three slaves received no lands. Provision was also made for 
church sites, and to St. Anne's was assigned the entire square 
of ground on Bates Street so long occupied by that parish. 
This extensive holding was in exchange for the valuable 
property on Jefferson Avenue near Griswold Street which 
had been occupied by the fourth St. Anne's Church, conse- 
crated in 1755 by Pont de Briand, Bishop of Quebec, and 
enlarged by Father Richard just previous to the burning of 
the town. 

The fiirmers along the river-bank were less fortunate than 
the townspeople in securing titles to their lands. In their 
case there was no one interested to buy wine for congress- 
men, and Governor Hull's appeals long fell on deaf ears. To 

IB 



lO GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

Madison he wrote : "I am now removing with my family 
and all my future prospects to this country. Gloomy in- 
deed are those prospects. Surrounded by a savage foe, in 
the midst of a people strangers to our language and customs, 
without legal title to property and no measures adopted by 
which title can be obtained, and not an acre of land to be 
offered to new settlers." The discontent of the settlers, the 
Governor said, was quickly imbibed by their friends the 
Indians, whose hostility to the Americans was constantly 
fanned by presents from the British across the river. "An 
honest and fair adjustment of land matters," continues Gov- 
ernor Hull, "would give more strength to the country than a 
thousand disciplined soldiers." 

During the century that the French had been in possession 
of the country adjacent to Detroit a considerable number of 
comfortable fortunes had been gathered. Among the more 
prosperous farmers was Francois Paul Malcher, whose broad 
lawn sloped gradually down to the narrow channel of the 
river, opposite the wooded Isle aux Cochons. Orchards of 
the French pear and the Norman apple sheltered the fine old 
farm-house from northern winds, and furnished the luscious 
fruit so highly prized by the settlers. When, a year or two 
after Governor Hull's coming, the long farm had been con- 
firmed to Franfois Paul by the Board of Land Commissioners, 
the old man, being about to die, felt moved to convey to 
the church his 360 fertile acres. This he could well do, 
because his personal estate would suffice for his grand- 
son and only heir, Isadore Saint Bernard, who would also 
inherit a fine farm from his father. The necessities of the 
church were great, since there were a hundred families 
living on the Cote du Nord-Est (northeast shore) who had 
to travel on Sundays and feast-days six miles to get to the 
Ernest farm below the town, where Father Richard had im- 
provised a church after the fire. Accordingly M. Malcher 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. I I 

called in the vicar-general, Father Richard, and the magistrate, 
Peter Audrain, and with their aid it was provided that in due 
time the transfer should be made to the church. Late in 
1809 M. Malcher was gathered to his fathers, the old home- 
stead was fitted upas a chapel, a school-room was arranged, 
and the building was dedicated to Saint Philip Neri. 

All went well until 18 16, when Father Richard began to 
build the fifth St. Anne's church on the site assigned in the 
town. Then the people of the northeast parish, who prob- 
ably objected to being called upon to pay their proportion 
for the new church, became incensed at the vicar-general, 
and at the end of a very serious and scandalous dispute found 
themselves cut off from church privileges. Harmony was 
restored only by the advent of Bishop Flaget, who in his 
old age made the long horseback journey of pacification 
from Bardstown, Ky., to Detroit. But lightning and death 
combined to prevent the success of the church and the col- 
lege of Saint Philip Neri, and in the '50's private parties got 
away from the church nearly all the rich acres of the Mal- 
cher farm, all through the want of a conveyance to Father 
Richard from the five original grantees of Francois Paul Mal- 
cher. Perhaps this despoilment might have been prevented 
had St. Anne's church, as a church, fought the matter; but 
the settlement made by Bishop Lefevre vested the title of 
the portion left to the church in the bishop, and not in rich 
St. Anne's. Every bishop of the diocese had quarreled with 
St. Anne's until the title to its property was vested in 
the bishop, at the time when, a few years ago, the fine old 
church with its twin steeples was torn down to make way 
for business. A sixth St. Anne's now preserves the name, 
and in time may gather the traditions of its predecessors. 

No sooner had Governor Hull settled himself to the ad- 
ministration of affairs than delegations of substantial French 
farmers waited on him with addresses of welcome, so called : 



12 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

the Beaufaits and the Chapotons, the Chenes and the Cam- 
paus, the Gouins, Marsacs, and Morans, the Peltiers and St. 
Aubins, whose ancestors had tilled the soil at Detroit for a 
hundred years, and many of whose descendants still enjoy 
fortunes whose foundations were laid under the rule of 
Cadillac. These hard-headed proprietors were not the ones 
to be over-enthusiastic at the latest change of government. 
With due caution they remarked that although they were 
personally unacquainted with their new ruler, yet, " having 
the most unbounded confidence in the President, they felt 
persuaded that he would appoint no gentleman to so high 
and important an office who did not possess republican 
principles, and whose interests would not be inseparable 
from those of the people whom he was to govern." To 
these words of welcome and warning the Governor made 
formal answer in an address which set up the Constitution 
of the United States in place of the Quebec Act as the char- 
ter of the people's liberties ; and in order to give the widest 
publicity to these sentiments, the address was translated 
into French and read in the churches in the neighborhood. 

Indeed, so far as could be seen, the appointment of 
Governor Hull appeared an ideal one. Among the younger 
officers of the Revolutionary Army none was more highly 
esteemed than Colonel Hull. A graduate of Yale, he en- 
tered the service in 1773, at the age of twenty-one, as 
captain in a Connecticut regiment ; he witnessed the evacu- 
ation of Boston ; he was wounded at White Plains ; on the 
day after the battle of Trenton he was promoted by General 
Washington for bravery ; he endured the bitterness of 
Valley Forge; for conspicuous gallantry at Stony Point he 
received the particular thanks of General Wayne, of General 
Washington, and of Congress ; "for his judicious arrange- 
ments in the plan of operations, and intrepidity and valor in 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 1 3 

execution" in an attack on the enemy at Morrisania, he had 
been thanked again in general orders by Washington and 
also by Congress. After the war he found political favor 
in the Massachusetts community in which he lived, and at 
the time Jefferson called him to be governor of Michigan he 
was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. At the age of 
fifty-one, with large experience both of military and of civil 
life, Governor Hull seemed to be the man of all others 
wisely to shape the fortunes of the wilderness Territory and 
to win respect and confidence for the government. 

Under the form of government then provided for the 
Territories, the Governor and the three Judges acted as the 
legislature, being limited in their enactments theoretically 
by the laws already in force in some one of the States, 
and practically by the extent of the Territorial law library, 
which in the case of Michigan " embraced the statutes of 
but four States, and those four the ones least applicable to 
a frontier Territory." It so happened that Governor Hull 
had stopped at Albany to take the oath of office before 
Vice-President George Clinton, and on his arrival at De- 
troit had administered the oath to Judge Woodward and 
Judge Bates. The careful Madison, to whom Governor 
Hull reported these facts, made indorsement that, the Vice- 
President not being empowered to administer oaths, all the 
oaths were informal ; but this lack of judicial succession 
was never again adverted to. The legislature promptly 
provided for courts of justice, for a militia, and for raising 
by lotteries twenty thousand dollars to be expended on the 
promotion of literature and the improvement of the city of 
Detroit. All able-bodied male inhabitants between the ages 
of fifteen and fifty were enrolled in the militia, and each 
was required " to provide himself with a good musket, or 
fusee, a sufficient knapsack and bayonet, and two square 



14 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

flints." So Strenuous, not to say fussy, was the new 
Governor on the subject of drills that he laid the foundation 
of an unpopularity that increased from month to month. 

In several matters pertaining to the interests of the Ter- 
ritory Governor Hull exercised a wise discretion. When 
Mr. Granger, a mill-owner on the St. Clair River, made 
complaint to President Jefferson that his lands were being 
invaded by both British and American timber-thieves. Gov- 
ernor Hull was ordered to issue a proclamation forbidding 
trespassing on the timber-lands along the St. Clair. This 
he did, but on September 1 1 he addressed to the State De- 
partment a remonstrance, in which he urged that boards 
had already advanced four or five dollars a thousand, that 
timber could be obtained only from the British or in the St. 
Clair country, and that consequently the course of the gov- 
ernment was working distress among the poorer people at 
Detroit who had been sufferers from the fire. Governor Hull 
also argued very justly that inasmuch as the Indian titles to 
the timber-lands had never been acquired by the govern- 
ment, no person could have a legal right to them, and con- 
sequently trespass must be a violation of the laws of the 
United States and not an offense against private rights. Gov- 
ernor Hull's position was legally a sound one ; but for thirty 
years certain of the St. Clair lands had been under improve- 
ment, and for nearly a century sawmills had been in oper- 
ation in that country. 

The remonstrance having met the usual fate of communi- 
cations sent to Washington, Governor Hull, being at the 
capital during the following December, addressed a brief 
note to the Secretary of State, asking if, for the reasons be- 
fore stated, the President did not think it expedient to take 
action in the timber matter. Madison evidently took this 
note to a cabinet meeting ; for on the bottom of the scrap 
of paper the same hand that penned the Declaration of In- 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 1 5 

dependence wrote these words, extending the aid of the 
Government to the sufferers by the Detroit fire : 

It was our joint opinion that altho' it would not do to lay open the 
public timber to all persons indiscriminately, yet that the calamity which 
happened at Detroit rendered it proper that the public should permit the 
poorer sufferers to get timber from their lands, and that it should be left to 
the discretion of Governor Hull to grant the special licences. 

Th. J. 

While Governor Hull was in Washington officers from 
Fort Maiden, the British headquarters at the mouth of the 
river, attempted to apprehend and take back a deserter from 
that post. The story, as written to Secretary Madison by 
the acting governor, Stanley Griswold, relates that on Sun- 
day, December 8, Thomas Nolan, a deputy marshal, while go- 
ing by boat to the River Rouge, six miles below Detroit, was 
met on the river by a party of British soldiers, who held him 
to search his boat for deserters. After some words, the 
boats went their different ways, and Nolan landed at Weav- 
er's Tavern, on the Rouge, for breakfast. There he found 
Captain Muir and Lieutenant Lundee, from Fort Maiden. 
While the party were breakfasting, a sentry stationed by 
the officers reported a canoe in sight. Captain Muir or- 
dered his boat manned, and despatched a soldier to intercept 
the canoe. During the bustle a man named Morrison ar- 
rived at the tavern, was recognized by some of the British 
as a deserter, and was taken into custody. Now, Captain 
Muir was a good deal of a bully, and the fashion in which 
he and his soldiers conducted themselves on American soil 
aroused the ire of Marshal Nolan, who, calling the citizens 
of the United States to his assistance, after a pretty severe 
struggle in which arms were displayed, rescued Morrison 
and took him to Detroit. The British officers followed not 
far behind, and on reaching the town went to Fort Shelby 
with their grievance. There they found Captain Brevoort 



1 6 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

and Lieutenant Hanks quite ready to give aid in apprehend- 
ing a deserter, by way of courtesy to fellow-officers. The 
servants of the United States officers, going from house to 
house through the little town, late in the evening located 
Morrison in the dwelling of Conrad Leek. Thereupon Cap- 
tain Muir and Lieutenant Lundee broke into Leek's house 
and seized the deserter. The people were prepared for 
them, and a general scuffle ensued. The British officers 
flourished their swords and pistols, Captain Brevoort stood 
by and swore at the citizens, and Lieutenant Hanks, with 
uplifted stick, threatened to strike any man who dared to 
lay hands on a British officer. Several shots were fired, and 
Captain Muir shot himself in the leg ; but neither the prowess 
of the British nor the curses and threats of their American 
allies availed to secure Morrison, who, securely guarded, 
was removed to the house of Mr. Smyth. There another 
crowd assembled, and when Lieutenant Hanks threatened 
to bring a detachment of troops from the fort and Governor 
Hull's impetuous son menaced the mob with the assurance 
that he would have the artillery blow the parcel of rascals to 
perdition, the people promptly gathered in both British and 
American officers. Next morning the offenders having been 
brought before the magistrates charged with a violent breach 
of the peace, the British officers were held in the sum of one 
thousand dollars each to appear at the September term of the 
General Court. The three Americans were also put under 
bail to appear at the same time. England might search 
American vessels on the high seas, but her officers should 
not be allowed to break into American homes. Even Major 
Campbell, the commandant at Maiden, felt himself called 
upon promptly to disavow the action of his officers, al- 
though he insisted that the reports of the affair had been 
exaggerated. The officers were duly convicted, but the 
international bearings of the affair having been adjusted by 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. I7 

Major Campbell's disavowal, the fines v^ere made trifling in 
amount. Thus the dignity of the United States was up- 
held, and at the same time an olive-branch was extended to 
our neighbors. 

Equal tact was shown in dealing with an Indian trouble 
which happened a year later, Michome, or Little Bear, a 
prominent chief of the Chippewa Nation, having murdered 
a member of his own tribe at Detroit, was promptly arrested 
and put in prison. He justified his action by saying that, 
being the head of the nation and by its laws and customs 
having all power invested in him, he conceived that he had 
done only his duty in despatching an Indian who had mur- 
dered a member of his own tribe, and who had twice tried 
to poison Michome himself. After killing the Indian, Mi- 
chome had gone straight to Governor Hull and reported the 
act, whereupon the Governor, fearing the displeasure of the 
Huron River and St. Clair Indians, wrote to President Jeffer- 
son asking for a pardon in case the chief should be convicted 
of murder. The pardon was sent, but before it arrived 
Michome was acquitted. 

During the summer of 1806 the people of Detroit dropped 
their business for a time to prepare for defense against a 
threatened attack from Canada. Much irritability arose on 
both sides of the border because of the fact that slaves 
left their British masters and sought freedom in the Territory 
of Michigan. When the owners applied to the government 
for the apprehension and return of their property. Governor 
Hull did not consider himself authorized to comply with the 
request, although he was willing to use all his authority to 
keep the slaves from coming to the United States. When 
the British masters applied to the courts, they again met 
with a refusal to interfere. The excitement over the matter, 
however, soon died out. 

The Michigan officials were early met by the great dispar- 



1 8 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

ity between their incomes and their expenditures. " In no 
part of the United States or Europe where I have resided," 
writes Governor Hull in his first letter to Secretary Madison, 
" is the expense of living so great as at this place. It will 
be for Congress to judge whether it will not be expedient 
to increase the salaries of their officers. The Secretary is 
strongly inclined to resign immediately, but 1 have persuaded 
him to remain until the next session of Congress." Six 
months later, Secretary Griswold, then acting as governor 
in the absence of General Hull, gives a highly colored picture 
of Detroit life. "It is reduced to a certainty," he says, 
"that this government cannot proceed without some ad- 
ditional pecuniary aid from Congress. Its seat is established 
at a place which combines all the disadvantages of an old 
and new settlement, without one of the advantages of either. 
Luxury, the relic of British fortunes formerly squandered 
here, and of a once flourishing commerce, continues its em- 
pire, though 1 am happy to think it is on the decline. Fashion, 
ceremony, and expense are great, far beyond the present 
abilities of the inhabitants. We are in the neighborhood oi 
a proud, rich, and shewy government, which has frequent 
intercourse with us through characters of wealth and dis- 
tinction. Our compensations are scanty for the most retired 
internal situations, where house-rent and provisions are cheap 
and expensive company is not known, as was the case at the 
seat of the government of the North Western Territory, in 
the year 1 787, by the ordinance of which date our salaries are 
regulated. . . . Imaginetoyourself a man expending the 
little savings he had been able to make ... in fitting out 
and removing his family a thousand miles, and finding him- 
self compelled to pay for rent and the necessaries of life more 
than he would be obliged to pay in the most expensive city 
of the United States, or of the world — with the extraordinary 
duties and expense of Chief Magistrate devolved on him for 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 1 9 

eight months out of twelve ; of commander-in-chief of a 
militia, which is relied on for effective defense ; and of Super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs to numerous and powerful nations, 
whose chiefs are frequently at his house — and imagine this 
man receiving but $750 per annum ! " 

These seemingly piteous appeals for larger salaries were 
treated at Washington as such communications are treated 
to this day. As a rule the first thing is to get an appoint- 
ment, and the next is to secure an increase in salary. Yet 
of the office-holders in Michigan Territory, as in other sec- 
tions of the country, President Jefferson could truthfully say, 
" Few die and none resign." The opportunities for gain in 
a new Territory, however, were not altogether wanting ; 
and shortly after their advent Governor Hull and Judge 
Woodward made arrangements with Russell Sturgis and 
other Boston capitalists literally to make money, through 
the organization of a bank of issue. Currency was scarce 
in this isolated community, and trade was conducted mainly 
by barter. The advent of the English had driven out the 
Spanish and French coin, and when the United States came 
into possession the sources of money supply were the pay- 
ments made to the garrison, and the meager salaries paid to 
the Governor, the Judges, and the Territorial Secretary, 
together with the coin brought in by the traders of the 
American Fur Company, who were the bankers of the forest. 
When coin was scarce the company filled the gap with 
issues of its own due-bills in small denominations. Gov- 
ernor Hull introduced the bill to charter a bank for 30 
years, with a capital of $400,000 ; but to Judge Wood- 
ward's expansive mind these figures seemed grossly in- 
adequate, and so he had the time extended to loi years, 
and the capital increased to $1,000,000. No bank since 
established in Michigan has exceeded the capital of this first 
financial institution, which was intended to provide for the 



20 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

wants of a city of a thousand people and a Territory within 
whose borders there were not more than three thousand 
inhabitants. 

It was necessary for Congress to approve the charter, and 
in this connection Judge Woodward's letter to Madison 
throws considerable light on the trade conditions of the 
country, besides exhibiting some of those wild ideas of 
finance which in these later days have found many adher- 
ents. "From the ocean all the way to these settle- 
ments," writes the Judge, "there is a continued line of 
improvements following without deviation the line of navi- 
gation. It is seldom more than forty miles in breadth, but its 
length is at least fifteen hundred miles. These settlements 
are pleasant, fertile, and even opulent. They present 
along the whole line an activity little realized in the United 
States. The commerce in furs which has been carried 
on in one channel for two centuries is the cause of this 
phenomenon. The measures of Bonaparte have just, in a 
great degree, cut off the English from the Continental mar- 
ket for furs. The Chinese have also laid restrictions on the 
commerce. At present [1807] there is a shock felt along 
the whole line which I have described, and which paralyzes 
even this country. . . . The commerce belongs to another 
nation. The Americans have never been able to succeed in 
it, though the most desirable part of it belongs to their own 
Territory and the whole of it passes along their line." The 
connection between the bank and the fur trade existed only 
in Judge Woodward's mind ; but what the Judge wrote 
about the trade being in the hands of foreigners was only 
too true. The Mackinac Company, composed of British 
merchants, was at this time in possession of the enormous 
fur trade, and it was not until 1809, two years subsequent 
to the date of Judge Woodward's letter, that John Jacob 
Astor obtained from the legislature of New-York a charter 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 21 

for the American Fur Company, with a real capital equal 
to the nominal capital of the Michigan bank. In i8i i Astor 
bought out the Mackinac Company, and so obtained control 
of the American trade. 

It was Judge Woodward's expressed opinion that "the 
quantity of notes and bills would always be regulated by 
the people according to their needs, so the amount of capi- 
tal is unimportant." On a paid-up capital of $19,000 in 
guineas, ten per cent, of which was provided by the Terri- 
tory, five by the citizens, and eighty-five by the Bosto- 
nians, the bank began business in an eight thousand-dollar 
building provided with iron doors, and with a cashier brought 
all the way from Boston. Judge Woodward was president, 
and on him and Cashier Flannigan devolved the onerous work 
of signing the bills. When $165,000 in currency had been 
so signed, the Boston managers departed eastward with it 
and marketed their crop at a discount of from ten to twenty- 
five per cent. These issues were repeated until notes to the 
amount of $400,000 were outstanding. The first five-dol- 
lar bill presented for payment was refused, and five hundred 
dollars in notes bought in Albany were also at first declined, 
but were afterward paid to save a complete collapse of the 
bank. Russell Sturgisand his friends had unloaded their stock, 
and now Governor Hull became completely convinced that 
the bank was a swindle. But Mr. Dexter, another Boston 
financier, stepped into the breach and, as proprietor of the 
Bank of Detroit, increased the issues to $1,500,000, all but 
$1 2,000 being put upon the Eastern markets, with the result 
that people who had never before heard of Detroit now 
learned to their cost that there was such a city. 

All this time the bank had been doing business without 
having had its charter approved by Congress, a matter which 
led to an investigation. Judge Woodward, with his helper, 
Judge Griffin, stood by the bank ; while Governor Hull and 



22 GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 

Judge Witherell (who had succeeded Judge Bates when the 
latter was transferred to Missouri) were opposed to the con- 
tinuance of so palpable a fraud. During Judge Woodward's 
absence in Washington, a bill was passed by the Legislative 
Council to punish the circulation of illegal bank-bills, and 
the Bank of Detroit came to an end. Inasmuch as the insti- 
tution received no deposits and discounted no bills, the 
closing worked little harm within the Territory, although it 
gave Michigan a bad name in the East. For the next ten 
years the people got on without a bank. 

The passage of the law wiping out the bank was but one 
of many causes of difference between Governor Hull and 
Judge Woodward. In the somewhat voluminous corre- 
spondence preserved in the State Department at Washington, 
Governor Hull appears to have kept his personal woes to 
himself. He even speaks in high terms of the ability of 
Judge Woodward, and expresses regret that the Judge's sal- 
ary is so small that he feels he must resign. But Judge 
Woodward does not so bridle his pen. In a remarkable 
letter dated, November 5, 1806, and addressed to the Legisla- 
tive Board, the Judge charges Governor Hull with lack of 
tact, energy, and firmness, and complains that the people 
had thrown off the ties of civilized society to such an extent 
that the Governor and government were but feathers blown 
by the wind. "A public officer," he says, meaning himself, 
" cannot walk or drive in the streets without being assaulted 
by the most vulgar and insolent abuse. A gentleman of the 
first influence in this country has declared in the streets that 
the first law that should pass that does not suit him, he would 
kick the government to perdition." The Judge ascribed the 
origin of these disturbances to two persons who, "being 
sons of a British drummer, thought they had an hereditary 
right to make a noise in the world," and to '' an Englishman 
who came to this country exhibiting a monkey for money, 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 2J 

and who, thinking men equally as easy as monkeys to lead, 
has assumed a sort of dictatorship here." 

Stanley Griswold, who was acting governor at the time 
when Judge Woodward's letter was delivered, forwarded a 
copy to Washington, doubtless for the purpose of revenge, 
he and Judge Woodward being on the worst of terms ; but 
the Territorial Secretary could not stand up against the arbi- 
trary, crafty, and unscrupulous Judge, and he was recalled. 
From the date of the downfall of the bank, chaos reigned 
in the Territorial Government. In September, 1 8 lo. Judges 
Woodward and Griffin, taking advantage of Judge Wither- 
ell's absence, by one act blotted from the statute-books all 
legislation enacted during the three years previous. The 
spirit of disorder leaped from the Legislative Council to the 
courts. Grand juries presented as nuisances certain obnox- 
ious laws ; they found indictments now against Governor 
Hull and again against Chief Justice Woodward, and Judge 
Woodward took the law into his own hands once by requir- 
ing each juryman to answer whether he voted for a certain 
presentment, and again by fining for contempt of court a 
citizen who had spoken disrespectfully of him in the street. 
It added nothing to the good feeling between the two men 
that when Governor Hull issued a pardon and the grand jury 
made a presentment declaring that in so doing the Governor 
had been guilty of usurpation. Judge Woodward proceeded 
to enforce his illegal judgment. 

Laws are silent in war time. The bickerings and jealousies 
of seven years were to be forgotten in the preparations 
for defense. But what confidence could the people have 
in the leadership of a governor who had not been able to 
govern a little community? Not only had his own people 
found him weak, but the enemy at Fort Maiden had drawn 
him into a correspondence in which he displayed conceit in 
place of patriotism and a general mental density which must 



24 



GOVERNOR, JUDGE, AND PRIEST. 



have gratified the astute Englishmen who were keeping 
the Indians supplied with powder, lead, and scalping-knives 
against the day of need. That day was now come. Tecum- 
seh and his twin brother the Prophet had organized a con- 
spiracy similar to that by which Pontiac had endeavored to 
keep the white men out of the Indian lands. Defeated at 
Tippecanoe, the Indians were forced to seek a British alliance 
in order to further their schemes against the Americans ; and 
when war was declared between Great Britain and the United 
States Tecumseh straightway reported at Fort Maiden for 
duty. 

Charles Moore. 




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